Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx, is a Belgian former professional road and track cyclist racer who is the most successful rider in the history of competitive cycling. His victories include an unequalled eleven Grand Tours, all five Monuments, setting the hour record, three World Championships, every major one-day race other than Paris–Tours, and extensive victories on the track.
Jean-Pierre "Jempi" Monseré was a Belgian road racing cyclist who died while champion of the world.
Roger De Vlaeminck is a Belgian former professional racing cyclist. He was described by Rik Van Looy as "The most talented and the only real classics rider of his generation". Nicknamed "The Gypsy" because he was born into a family of traveling clothiers, he is known for exploits in the cobbled classic Paris–Roubaix race, but his performances in other "Monument" races gave him a record that few can match. His record in Paris–Roubaix earned him another nickname, "Monsieur Paris–Roubaix".
The Brussels Cycling Classic is a semi classic European bicycle race, one of the oldest races on the international calendar.
Paris–Tours is a French one-day classic road cycling race held every October from the outskirts of Paris to the cathedral city of Tours. It is a predominantly flat course through the Chevreuse and Loire valleys; the highest point is 200 m, at Le Gault-du-Perche. It is known as a "Sprinters' Classic" because it frequently ends in a bunch sprint at the finish, in Tours. For several decades the race arrived on the 2.7 km long Avenue de Grammont, one of cycling's best-known finishing straits, particularly renowned among sprinters. Since 2011 the finish was moved to a different location because a new tram line was built on the Avenue de Grammont.
Patrick Sercu was a Belgian cyclist who was active on the road and track between 1961 and 1983. On track, he won the gold medal in the 1 km time trial at the 1964 Summer Olympics, as well as three world titles in the sprint in 1963, 1967 and 1969. On the road, he earned the green jersey in the 1974 Tour de France. Sercu is the record holder for the number of six-day track race victories, having won 88 events out of 223 starts between 1961 and 1983; several of these wins were with cycling great Eddy Merckx. He also won six stages at the Tour de France and eleven stages at the Giro d'Italia.
The 1969 Tour de France was the 56th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 28 June and 20 July, with 22 stages covering a distance of 4,117 km (2,558 mi). The participant teams were no longer national teams, but were once more commercially sponsored. The race was won by Eddy Merckx who absolutely dominated the rest of the field. As an example in 1967 nine riders finished within 20:00 of the winner, in 1968 nineteen riders were within 20:00 but in 1969 the 10th place rider was +52:56, the 20th place rider was +1:17:36 and only Roger Pingeon finished inside 20:00 of Merckx.
Molteni was an Italian professional road bicycle racing team from 1958 until the end of 1976. It won 663 races, many of them earned by its most famous rider, Eddy Merckx. Other riders included Gianni Motta and Marino Basso, who contributed 48 and 34 wins respectively. The Molteni family continues in cycling with sponsorship of Salmilano.
Ferdinand Bracke is a Belgian former professional road and track cyclist who is most famous for holding the World Hour Record (48.093 km) and winning the overall title at the 1971 Vuelta a España in front of Wilfried David of Belgium and Luis Ocaña of Spain. He also became world pursuit champion on the track in 1964 and 1969.
Sport in Belgium plays a prominent role in the society. As of 2010, Belgium counted around 17,000 sport clubs with approximately 1.35 million members, or about 13% of the Belgian population. Popular sports in Belgium are, among others: football, cycling, tennis, table tennis, athletics, swimming, basketball, badminton, judo, hockey, rowing, motocross, auto racing, volleyball, and running. Belgium has organized the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp as well as the 1972 UEFA European Championship and the 2000 UEFA European Championship along with the Netherlands. The Belgium national football team's best result was a 3rd place at the 2018 FIFA World Cup and a second place of the 1980 UEFA European Championship. Belgian football clubs have won 3 times the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and twice the UEFA Cup, plus 3 times the UEFA Supercup.
Jean-Marie Wampers is a former professional road racing cyclist from Belgium. He was a professional between 1981 and 1992, achieving his greatest triumph when he won Paris–Roubaix in 1989.
Peugeot team was a French professional cycling team that promoted and rode Peugeot racing bikes.
Panasonic was a Dutch professional cycling team, sponsored by the Matusishita Corporation, formed in 1984 by team manager Peter Post, when the TI–Raleigh main sponsors, withdrew sponsorship. Some of the riders, followed Jan Raas to his newly formed team, Kwantum Hallen–Decosol. Peter Post retained some riders, and rebuilt his team, with riders, who became one of the most dominant teams, for both classics, and stage races.
Jean-Luc Potaux, known as Joël Prévost, is a French singer, best known for his participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978.
Géraldine Gogly(born 18 April 1946 in Paris) is a French singer.
Faemino–Faema was a professional cycling team that existed from 1968 to 1970. Faema's most prominent rider was Eddy Merckx who won his first four grand tours with the team.
Mathilde is a song by Jacques Brel with music by Gérard Jouannest. It was one of the five tracks appearing on the B-side of his eighth album, Ces gens-là, released in 1966 on a 10-inch record
Bravo Eddy is a 1969 musical single by Jean Narcy (1932-2014), which celebrates Belgian cycling champion Eddy Merckx. The lyrics were written by J. Postule, C. Avranches, J. Narcy and H. Delfosse. It was released by Decca.
Eddy Prend Le Maillot Jaune is a 1969 song by Pierre-André Gil about the cycling champion Eddy Merckx, inspired by his first victory in the 1969 Tour de France contest that same year. The song was released on the label Monopole. The B-side was called Mamma Mamma Mia.
Eddy Est Imbattable! is a 1971 Belgian French-language song by Pierre-André Gil about Belgian cycling champion Eddy Merckx. It was released on the label EMI and had the song Eddy & Claudine as B-side, which is also about Merckx. Claudine Aucou is his wife. Earlier in 1969 Gil had recorded another song about Merckx named Eddy Prend Le Maillot Jaune.
